On her way down, I grabbed my friend’s arms and we played a game of tug of war with her lanky body, the three of us giggling like the dorks we were.
“Stew,” I said. “I’m not sure if you’re into polygamy, but once you marry Shannon, can I be like a sister-wife or something?”
Stewart slid a hand through his bowl cut, the corner of his lip hitched in a crooked grin. “I suppose I could spare forty-seven seconds for you once in a while.”
“That’s all I ask,” I sighed, fanning myself for affect.
“Stop teasing my boyfriend.” Shannon stretched her leg out and kicked me in the thigh. “You’re going to give him a big head. I mean, look at her, Stew. Sam’s way too hot for you.”
“So are you,” he replied. “But I reeled you in with my superpowers.”
“Right, but we’re heroes in the comic book world. Sam here, she’s a real life one. Besides, she’s beholden to only one man. And my bet is he’ll be hanging around the stage today while his brother performs. If all goes as planned, my little sister-wife here will be getting some serious name-brand D tonight.”
My eyes widened. Sure, I knew there was a good possibility Keith would be at the concert today, but it was the first time I realized Shannon was plotting something wicked. Per my request, she and I never talked about Keith. She’d brought him up plenty in the early days, but talking about him only made me sad, so I avoided the topic altogether until one day she stopped asking.
“You’d better not be thinking of doing something to get his attention.”
“Me? No. That’s your job.”
“He probably doesn’t even remember me.”
Shannon rolled her eyes, knowing that statement to be as untrue as I did. No way had he forgotten me. We’d had something special – something I’d never managed to replicate with any other man I’d ever dated. So why was I fighting Shannon on this? If she had a way to get me close to my former flame, I should be jumping at the chance. But for some reason, Keith scared me now. The possibility of rejection hung heavy in the air, and after enduring Preston’s proclamation, my trust in men had plummeted.
“Oh, please,” Shannon scoffed. “You’re a blast from the past. No way is he going to say ‘no’ to a visit from you.”
“Unless he’s married with children.”
“Who gets married at twenty-four?”
“Lots of people, Shan. Not everyone has to wait on aStar Warsmovie release schedule to get engaged and married.”
“Yeah, well, if you ask me, he’s too young, especially to have kids.”
“Apparently you’ve never watchedTeen Mom,” I concluded.
“So, what’s with this Keith guy, anyway? I mean aside from the fact he’s the brother of Jake McKallister,” Stewart asked. “I thought he was just some high school sweetheart.”
“He was.”
“Yes, but they never broke up,” Shannon explained. “Neither of them ever got closure.”
I swiveled my head in her direction, surprised by her take on things. After I’d moved away, Shannon had tried to give me updates on Jake and Keith, but I’d shut her down. In my mind, a clean break meant distancing myself from the McKallisters and the heartbreak of our sudden split. Not that that was so easy once Jake exploded onto the music scene. Suddenly Keith’s surname was everywhere, making the memory of him hard to ignore. You couldn’t turn the radio on without one of Jake’s songs blasting from the speaker, nor could you go into a public place anywhere in the county without overhearing a discussion about the McKallister family. They were legendary in these parts, and ignoring their infamy was not an option.
Now I was wondering if forbidding all mention of him had been a mistake. Shannon was right. We’d never had closure. Could that be why I was having so much trouble committing myself to love? Maybe seeing Keith would be a good thing.
“What split you up then?” Stewart asked, swatting on the chains hanging down from my ceiling fan. His head barely cleared the rotating blades.
“A serial killer.”
He stopped smacking the chains to address me directly. “So cliché, Sam. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard that excuse…”
“Oh, sorry.” I laughed. “I didn’t mean to bore you with my run-of-the-mill story of young love gone tragically awry.”
He grinned, interested enough to press for more information. “After Jake disappeared, you never saw Keith again?”
“Only once, on the beach, the day before I left. It was awkward. Jake had escaped the week before, and Keith was struggling to keep everything together. We talked, but not in depth. I helped him gather items from the beach to share with Jake, and then we went our separate ways. I never saw him again.”
“Like I said…” Shannon nodded. “Unfinished business.”
